Today in the scene above, taken from the fourth-floor apartment of Catherine Obiudo, readers can see the no-nonsense Registry of Motor Vehicles building and a widened Myrtle Street.

In the upper hand corner sits the old Holiday Inn building, which now houses condominiums and office space and shops on the first floor.

The photo contrasts sharply with the one shot in the 1950s.

The buildings that once housed Costello's tire and the A.B.F. Kinney Co. pawn shop were razed as part of the decadeslong projects to transform the downtown neighborhoods just to the east and north of Worcester City Hall.

Hundreds of apartment building and three-deckers were taken down to make way for Seven Hills Plaza and the new Worcester Public Library at Salem Square.

The project also included the construction of the Francis J. McGrath Boulevard, which eventually whisked motorists from Southbridge Street near Coney Island, through the busy intersection of Green and Franklin streets, and into roadways near Union Station.

That big initiative piggy-backed onto the construction on Interstate 290, which wreaked havoc in neigborhoods running from South Worcester, and, through Green Island and Grafton and Vernon hills, to Lincoln Square and Belmont Street.

City and state officials considered several sites for an office to replace the makeshift Registry office near West Boylston and Green streets.

They eventually chose the intersection of Myrtle and Main streets, figuring the new Registry building, in conjunction with the U.S. Post Office and the federal courthouse across the street, would somehow draw added people to the area.

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